The Basics and The Best of Twitter Clients

If you use Twitter for work (and/or for personal use), chances are, it managing your account can become tricky if you’re using the basic Twitter interface on the web. It’s easy to forget to log-in and to make the most out of your network.

Which Twitter Client do you use?

What’s a Twitter client and how can this help you?

A Twitter client is an application that helps individuals to manage their Twitter accounts. Often, you can link one or more Twitter accounts in this application, and sometimes, even other social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn may be linked and managed too.

A Twitter client has a dashboard that helps you to update and to monitor your accounts. Some even offer additional features like link shorteners, statistics/metrics, and scheduled updates.

Many Twitter clients have a desktop/web version and a mobile version.

Some of the Most Popular Twitter Clients

1. HootSuite – HootSuite is one of the most full-featured Twitter client around. It connects with several accounts and across different social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It also offer statistics (and a report for PRO users), link shortener, autoscheduler, group Tweeting (PRO), and a few other features. It has a web interface and a mobile version. It has a free version. Currently, Vervely is using a HootSuite PRO account.

2. TweetDeck – This is another favourite Twitter client. For a while, this was the exclusive Twitter client that we were using before migrating to HootSuite. Users are able to manage several accounts, as well as access features like link shortener, scheduled Tweets, and filters. It is available for free with a desktop, mobile version and a Google Chrome plugin.

3. Twitter App – Twitter has the usual web interface available, but it also can be accessed using their very own native Twitter app. This was something that we have also used for a while, but its features are suitable for basic Twitter users. Multiple Twitter accounts and link shorteners are available, but if you’re managing different social platforms and you wish to use just one client for it all, then this can be limiting.

Some Useful Twitter Client Tips

• Apart from managing multiple accounts, Twitter clients are also great for monitoring different conversations. Create lists and follow hashtags with much more ease. On HootSuite, for example, you can use the search function to follow a specific hashtag or keyword, then you can create a stream so you can regularly check on the conversations happening around that hashatag or keyword.
• This does not affect Twitter users, but I thought it might be worth mentioning anyway that it is believed that if you use a Twitter client or a third party app when posting on your Facebook page, this can affect your EdgeRank. Therefore, even though Twitter clients can post for you on your Facebook pages, it may not be the best approach. When posting to Facebook, it is said that it is best to post manually or to use the Facebook app.
• If you use TweetDeck or the Twitter app, you might consider using and linking a bit.ly service for link shortening, so that you can monitor some of the statistics on your Twitter account.
• When scheduling posts, make sure that you monitor what’s going on in the social space, in case one of your Tweets may get published when it would seem inappropriate at that time. There are very few instances that this can happen, but it’s best to be vigilant.

Poll: Which Twitter client do you like best?

Tell us which Twitter client you like best! If you’re using something else other than HootSuite, TweetDeck or the native Twitter app, please let us know in the comments section.